


Sleuths in the Night

by WhoKnowsNow



Series: Drunk Drabbles [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Drunk Betty, F/M, Fluff, Jughead Jones is a gorgeous fluffball and an amazing friend, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 02:06:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10452546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoKnowsNow/pseuds/WhoKnowsNow
Summary: Jughead receives a text from Betty and something is a bit off. He goes to check on an intoxicated Betty Cooper and fluff ensues.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Like many others, I am Riverdale trash and a Bughead shipper. 
> 
> I challenged my own intoxicated ass to write a fluffy fic last night and here's what happened.  
> Chat with me on[ Tumblr!](http://secondhand-and-broken.tumblr.com/)

Jughead Jones prides himself on being a skilled observer. He always knows enough about people to be dangerous while keeping enough distance to be discreet. This is why Jughead is startled when, at 1:30 am on a Thursday night, he receives a that he never anticipated.

Betty Cooper:

 

>   Heyyyyy Juggie! Wharae you doigng? 

This is not typical Betty Cooper behavior. The misspelling alone is abnormal. Everything in Jughead screams: Abort mission! Abandon ship!

Unfortunately, Jughead Jones has always had a soft spot, or maybe something more akin to tiny hearts floating around his head cartoon style, whenever Betty is involved.           
  
Jughead:

 

> Hey, Betts. Not much, seeing as it’s 1:30. What are you doing?

Betty:

 

> Oh noooo! I hope I didn’t wakee you :(. I’m not doin mucg, Im in my room.
> 
> I’m guessing you can teldl I’m not ny usual sekf…… Juggie…. I gottar tell you somethign….. I may hbe a little but drunk?? :O

Jughead:

 

> Oh, Betts, I never would have guessed. You didn’t wake me, I’m always here for you, 24/7. Not that I want to ask, but where are your parents?

Betty:

 

> They’re away on a reporting journaly thinghg. After everyohing with POlly they thougjt leaving for abit may be the best plan. They left me alone with the alcholo. I wasn’t gonna but,, Juggie, i jus tdecided, screw it, ya know! It’s not  a gppd readpn, byt  I feel so alone some times. I feeli like i have to be tihs perfect daughter, student, and friend and I just can’t do it anymore, Jug. I can’t. Im not perfetct. I’m a mess! I may even be crazy for all I can tell! My family certainky seems to be!=o- 

Jughead’s heart speeds up as he reads Betty’s message. He feels terrible that she thinks she is alone. She is never alone, not in all the years he’s known her. While Alice Cooper has never been the best mother and her father always acts more like branches blowing in the wind than a sturdy tree, she had Polly and Archie, she has him. While everything else in Riverdale is changing after Jason’s murder, he wants himself and Betty to be the same as they always were: best friends. He wants to comfort her after a hard day, congratulate her after her successes at the Blue and Gold, crawl into bed with her and hold her close… always, really. Okay, maybe he doesn't want things to be _exactly_ the same, but right now, in this moment, he doesn’t have the luxury of dreaming. Life in Riverdale is currently on hyper-speed and his once normal teen years of angst and jealousy have turned tumultuous; he has had to sneak out of his temporary home under a staircase in the high school before classes start and Elizabeth Cooper has resorted to alcohol to deal with her issues.     

 Jughead:

 

> Do you want company?

Betty:

 

> If it's you, always.

That’s the one message she’s typed perfectly all night. He wants to believe it means something, but he’s put too much stock in false hope all his life. He hoped the Starlight Drive-In would stay open. He hoped his family would stay together. He hoped his dad would stop drinking. Hope doesn’t help in reality. Action is all that works when it comes down to it. His action right now is to go help Elizabeth “Betty” Cooper feel like she’s not alone, like she never needs to be alone again if she doesn’t want to be.  

Jughead:

 

>  I’m on my way.

Jughead climbs into her window without preamble. She left it slightly ajar and he thinks that, maybe this time, he can believe that this one thing was meant just for him.

Betty is sitting on her mattress. Her floral bedding is askew and the intimacy of the moment is not lost on Jughead. Not only are Betty’s sheets awry, her normally taught pony-tail is untied; blonde strands of hair wisp around her blushed face. She looks absolutely beautiful. Betty always looks beautiful, but there’s something about her in this moment that seems more genuine than the proper, pretty, polite girl she is at school. Jughead has always known her to be feisty when no one else is paying enough attention, but now, with her hair down in combination with her thin tank top straps sliding off one shoulder and her tired green eyes staring at him, she feels real.

Betty always felt like an abstract concept to Jughead because she was so good. Not perfect, no, even though that’s what her mother intended for her and her other friends saw in her, Jughead knew she wasn’t perfect. She had edges and ridges and caverns so deep sometimes he worried he would fall into her and never escape. Then he would think, that wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen.

While he does not like that she drank to forget her troubles, especially with the issues his father has gotten himself into doing the same, he couldn’t help but sympathize. This was her release, her only release, since Archie turned her down and she found out her parents sent her pregnant sister to live with crazy nuns.

Jughead maintains eye contact with Betty as he walked towards where she was perched atop her covers. She looks like she was waiting for him. He sits down next to her, closer than he may have dared when the sunlight could shine in and judge him. The dark masks more than evil-doers in the night, it cloaks those too afraid to commit noble acts in plain sight.

“Hey, Betts.” She smiles at him, those green eyes meeting his own as he searches her soul for answers to questions he is always too afraid to ask, like: _do you know how much I love you?_

“Juggie.” She sighs his name like she has been waiting to say it, like she was dreaming. Betty pulls him down so they are laying on her bed together. He sits back up, but not without resistance from his female counterpart, and adjusts the blankets so they are resting atop the pair of silent sleuths. As Jughead lays back down, Betty readjusts to lay her head on his chest. He has never felt so calm yet so self-conscious. Tomorrow they will talk about it. He will get her some water and some pain-killers. He will hold her as she cries about her family that has changed so drastically in the past few months.

Tonight, they will both sleep better than they have in years, tight in each other’s arms.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I'd love to hear what you thought! I'm all about this ship, so I'd love to write more fics. 


End file.
